Jew, obedient to the ritual of his church, would scarcely be guilty of the sin of ingratitude; just as it is difficult that the Christian, who, at the present hour, faithfully keeps the higher festivals of the Church, should be thankless and forgetful of all the mercies of his Almighty Father.
In the Jewish Church there were, besides the weekly Sabbaths and other lesser festivals, three great feasts of chief importance, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. At each return of these, every male among the Twelve Tribes was commanded to go up to Jerusalem, and there to worship Jehovah. The women were allowed to accompany them, and were often in the habit of going, as we learn from Scripture history; but the journey was not obligatory with them. It is easy to see the many advantages that must have resulted to the different tribes from this general intercourse, hallowed by duty and religious services as it was. The Passover, as we all know, commemorated the deliverance of the Jews on that fearful night in Egypt, when “there was not a house where there was not one dead;” but like all the greater points in the Jewish ritual, it was also typical and prophetic in character, foreshadowing the salvation of the Christian Church by the death of the true Paschal Lamb, our Blessed Lord, who was sacrificed at that festival some sixteen centuries after its institution. For us, therefore, the Passover has become Easter.
The second great festival of the Jews was called by them the “Feast of Weeks,” because it was kept seven weeks after the Passover; and from its following on the fiftieth day from that feast, it has received the more modern name of Pentecost. To the Jews it commemorated the proclamation of the Law on Mount
